Media Archive

LL12 - 03.24.2007

Laclede’s LAN 12 marked a bittersweet first: our LAN had become popular enough that we ran out of space and had to turn away gamers at the door. Those who hadn’t pre-paid to reserve their seat ended up losing it to an earlier arrival. The staff, meanwhile, could not get Valve Anti-Cheat to work at all the night before the event, and finally managed to restore it at 5 AM, mere hours before the first walk-ins. Despite the close calls and some disappointment at the front door, this was (in our opinion) our best event – because once everyone was in the door and seated, every part of the LAN experience ran smoothly. LL had finally hit its stride, and our Ranken and U.S. Army sponsorships allowed us to back up our tournaments with big prizes. Wedge, Bean, and Lodsiek’s new Wii all joined the staff at this LAN (although the Wii didn’t last long as a staff member, since it didn’t know what online multiplayer was). Our LAN was growing faster than we could have imagined – pro gamer Johnathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel attended this event, and one of our door prizes was an entire gaming PC.